November 2019
you have to remove the plug, and then
attempt to fill the reservoir with a thin
hose or something like that. I was
cheeky and asked my local doctor if he
would give me one of his large injection
syringes (without the needle), then fitted
a small diameter hose to the end of it.
Worked ok.
But…I did this before I took the cross
member out from under the car, and
when I did, found that the front shockers
were next to useless, and I knew that I
had to fix them. Found that the left hand
one had hardly any oil in it, and was as
sloppy as—well—you know what!!. The
right hand one was the opposite—
couldn’t move it , even after clamping it
in the vice, with a length of pipe on the
end of the arm. So I took the back cov-
ers off and the top and bottom plugs out,
drained the oil and dunked them in pet-
rol, while moving the arms backward
and forward, to flush all the crap out.
(These types of shock absorbers have
two parallel cylinders inside them, one
above the other, with a piston in each
cylinder, which are connected with two
connecting rods to a shaft at the back of
the assembly. At the front of the pistons
in the front of the assembly, are two
holes or orifices, which are of a prede-
termined size, so as to govern the
amount of flow of the oil through the
system, causing a damping affect. As
the shocker arm is moved upwards
( front end of the car goes down), oil in
the bottom cylinder is pushed out and
into the top cylinder, causing a damping
effect. The reverse happens when the
front end of the car goes up.)
After washing, cleaning and blowing the
shockers out, replaceing the plugs and
covers, filling them with oil, found that
they worked fine again. ( Slightly heavy
resistance).
Before I go any further, I must thank
Bruce Smith of Sportsparts in Sydney,
for his understanding and patience with
me . As I worked through the problems
that I had with Emmy, I would replace
parts that I had ordered from Bruce, and
it got that way, that I was ordering parts
almost every week, for about a year or
so. Sometimes I reckon that he said to
himself---Jeeeezzz — not YOU
again….SSSS….it happens—then you
die!! ( joking again ).
I must also say that I was very pleas-
antly surprised to find that almost any-
thing that you would want for your MG,
is available, and the cost of parts does-
n’t kill the bank account either—very
reasonable---don’t get any silly ideas
Bruce!!!....
Replaced the handbrake cable, hand-
brake didn’t work,- was also rusty in-
side, and when I tried to grease it
through the grease nipple, it just came
straight out again..
Rear brakes.
Glazed up as well.
Remachined braking surfaces, cleaned
up and repainted the drums, ordered
and replaced slave cylinders and seals-
- didn’t look good, more muck inside
and seals hard. I rubbed down the
brake shoes as well with emery paper,
to get rid of the glaze on them, Wasn’t
sure whether I was exposing myself to
asbestos, so I wore a particle mask.
Better to be safe than sorry!!!.
I think that is about all I can say about
restoring and replacing components
under the car, except for the shock ab-
sorbers. Found that all I had to do with
the rear ones, is to replace some oil
through the top plug. I say top, because
the front shockers are a bit different, in
that, you can only fill them through a
plug that is situated in the top side of
the assembly. If you attempt this while
the shockers are still attached to the
suspension assembly, under the car,
Part two of the story continued next
month ...............
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